Atlas V to be man-rated

On 7/25/2011 4:52 AM, Jeff Findley wrote:

I personally like SpaceX's approach taken with Dragon. It uses the more
efficient gumdrop shape but scales it up. This eliminates the separate
orbital module, simplifying the design. But the biggest advantage is
that Dragon can return far larger payloads than Soyuz.

Yeah, both Soyuz and Progress let you take payload up, but Soyuz can
only bring a small amount back because of the cramped RV, and Progress
none at all, lacking a reentry module. They did test a small reentry
capsule called Raduga on Progress that would be jettisoned out of the
front of the spacecraft's docking collar after retrofire, but abandoned
that also. Apparently, they just didn't find any real use in bringing
things back down from their space stations, except for the film return
capsule on the Almaz reconnaissance version:
http://www.svengrahn.pp.se/histind/Almprog/almprog.htm

Pat